Best for: eastern tradition

Inspired by the idea of a small floating hotel, Guntû (pronounced ‘gan-su’ and named after a small local blue crab) is a modern take on a ryokan by Tokyo architect Yasushi Horibe. Sliding paper screens, wooden baths, kimono-style dressing gowns and fantastic sushi make this perhaps Japan’s most interesting boat. There’s nothing else even remotely like it. Small but immaculately laid out, it has 19 cabins and was commissioned by a shipbuilding company in Hiroshima Prefecture to mark its centenary. The one-to-three-night journey begins in Onomichi (an hour’s drive from Hiroshima, which is an 80-minute plane hop from Tokyo or an easy add-on to a bullet-train tour) and cruises at a leisurely 10 knots an hour across the waters of the Seto Inland Sea, which is speckled with 3,000 or so small islands.

Life on board is haiku-inspiringly peaceful; the experience is both serene and quintessentially Japanese. Beneath a simple Noah’s Ark-style gabled roof, the interiors are a showcase of contemporary design, using 11 different woods and a layout modelled on traditional homes, plus a healthy serving of omotenashi (that untranslateable word synonymous with the warmest welcome). There’s the minimal ribbon staircase in the white lobby; onsen-style baths infused with fresh lemons; a small spa; discreet staff dressed in contemporary neutrals; and an authentic sweets ceremony performed in the tatami-mat bar. Attention to detail in the wooden cabins is also flawless – from the tin tea caddies by Kyoto’s Kaikado to the wabi-sabi teacups by artist Taro Tabuchi. Not to forget the food: local fishermen arrive daily at the boat’s jetty with fresh catch, which later reappears at the excellent six-seat sushi counter. Very special. By Danielle Demetriou

Book it: Berths from around £1,350 per night (based on two sharing), including meals and activitiesTelephone: +3 6823 6055Website: guntu.jp

Best for: a river jaunt

Some rivers just seem to flow through people’s veins. For the peoples of South-east Asia, the tea-coloured Mekong is that river. Mekong means Mother River, and it runs from its delta in Vietnam to its upper reaches among the hill tribes of northern Thailand. The best part of the Mekong is in Laos, a country that still seems part of an older, more traditional Indochina. And now there is a new river boat that takes you there. The Gypsy plies between Luang Prabang, Laos’s old royal capital, and the Golden Triangle in Thailand. Built with the lines of a traditional thatched-roof rice barge, it’s chartered on an all-to-yourself basis, with four people in two cabins (an extra bed can be added to fit a family of five).

Inside, designer Jiraparnn Tokeeree has kept things streamlined and relevant with detailed latticework on the wardrobes, geometric woven Laotian cushions and floral carvings, plus his own signature tulip-wood lampshades. Vases of orchids sit in front of slatted blinds at the windows. The two breezy open decks with bamboo-framed daybeds are served by a chef who produces a succession of Lao-French dishes. There are plenty of shore excursions to villages, textile weavers and temples on offer, but it’s hard to escape the sense that there are few things sweeter than lazy days watching the unfolding panorama of the river banks. The trip can be taken upriver or downriver – the latter might be the better choice as the Mekong grows progressively more picturesque as you sail through Laos, and Luang Prabang, barnacled with temples and creaky shophouses, is a worthy destination. By Stanley Stewart

Book it: A three-night, four-day upriver cruise costs from £4,200 and from about £5,370 for the two-night, three-day downriver cruise, full board including excursionsTelephone: +856 0 7125 5001Website: mekongkingdoms.com

Best for: pristine waters

The waters around Raja Ampat and Komodo are now filling up with turbo-smart phinisis. They are outrageously comfortable if you’re after full-sail, wind-in-the-rigging romance; hotel brands Alila and Aman Resorts have been cruising around for a few years. But Erik Barreto, co-founder of Rascal, had a different dream. Years of sailing the remote corners of the Indonesian archipelago exploring active volcanoes and pink coral beaches left him wanting to design a new kind of boat, something smaller, more laidback, drawing on the shape and look of the phinisi but losing the masts to transform the interior space. And this 100ft teak yacht is the only such vessel to have all five cabins, and the saloon, above the water line.

Inside it’s a mix of local craftsmanship and notable mod cons, with interiors by Bali-based Charles Orchard (Nihi Sumba, Four Seasons Sayan, The Legian). Spacious, high-ceilinged bedrooms, crisp in white linens, have picture windows on three sides, and the huge flat roof morphs between sun-lounging terrace, night-time cinema and stargazing spot. And yet this is no pastiche: hand-crafted by the ancestral boat-building communities on Sulawesi, the ironwood floors were bent into shape over a bonfire. Each voyage is tailormade, from the choice of food (with menus by haute-hippie Seminyak restaurant Watercress) to the destinations visited – often places yet to be named on the map. A recurring theme is diving: the waters of the Coral Triangle are the most biodiverse on the planet. Rascal has a full quota of diving kit and also runs expeditions where guests are joined by biologists from Conservation International. The first of these discovered two new kinds of fish – a pretty memorable holiday moment. By Rebecca Newman

Book it: From £7,440 per night for the whole vessel full board (sleeps 10)Website: rascalvoyages.com

Best for: high style

This new ship has all the design references guests might hope for from a cruise company founded by a Norwegian: lots of natural blonde woods, Eames chairs, pale sofas. Thoughtful touches are everywhere, from traditional Marius-weave soft wool blankets in the cabins and leather-bound atlases and books on madcap explorers in the library to photographs of astronauts in the corridors. The boat was named after the constellation and in honour of retired NASA astronaut Dr Anna Fisher’s work on the Orion space project. The pool has a retractable roof for all-weather laps that make up for the moreish bread basket in Italian restaurant Manfredi’s, and the LivNordic spa centres around a thermal suite with cedar-lined saunas, a bracing ice-cold bucket shower and the snow grotto where snowflakes fall gently to tighten post-facial pores.

Lunch on Scandi deli-fare (salmon gravlax, smørrebrød) in Mamsen’s but save room for afternoon tea under a trellised tree-like canopy in the Wintergarden. In the evening there’s live music – a Beatles and Abba fusion of crowd-pleasers in the theatre, or Rat Pack covers in the Torshavn Club – but the most unique form of entertainment is in the planetarium, a first for cruising, where you tilt your head back to watch 3D documentaries on dwarf galaxies visible in the southern hemisphere while sailing the Tasman Sea. By Sherri Eisenberg

Book it: A 15-day cruise from Sydney to Auckland, departing March 2019, costs from about £5,250 per person, all inclusiveTelephone: +800 458 6900Website: vikingcruises.com

Best for: watersports

Crystal Cruises are best known for its ocean liners and, more recently, for its river fleet, so when this 62-passenger yacht launched three years ago it was a real game-changer. Not only for its refreshingly small size (there isn’t even a disembarkation process in most ports) but also for the seriously cool sports kit onboard. As well as the usual kayaks, there’s a bubble-like submersible of the kind that might be used to film David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, which can dive down to 1,000ft, for use in the deep Indian Ocean waters.

More relaxed days are spent wet-landing on deserted shores in the Seychelles archipelago before wading through the shallows for bird watching and beach dozing, or paddling in water so clear you can watch a lobster crawl past your toes. Butler-serviced cabins are decorated in grey and white; the pool deck has cocooning white wicker chairs and Balinese daybeds for film nights; and the counter in the airy Patio Café (herringbone floors, conical lights, curving leather chairs in tonal shades of blue) is piled high with superb help-yourself salads at lunch. In the evening linger over Michelin-star-level dinners – shrimp carpaccio, the freshest tuna crudo with baby bok choi – at the contemporary Yacht Club restaurant, overseen by executive chef Adam Jenkins. And anyone who happens to rave about the peanut-butter-parfait dessert might find a plate of peanut-butter cookies in their cabin the next day, still warm from the oven. By Sherri Eisenberg

Book it: A seven-day cruise (round trip out of Mahé), departing January 2020, costs from about £4,320Telephone: +1 866 446 6625Website: crystalcruises.com

Best for: barefoot charm

The Spanish owners of Atzaró, an authentic agroturismo in Ibiza, have taken quite a leap with this wooden phinisi halfway around the world. And they have cleverly lifted the streamlined style from the finca and reimagined it in sailing form. Made of teak with an iron-wood deck, the 180ft ship is powered by engine and augmented by seven sails on two masts. The nine lofty cabins, including the vast master which comes with its own terrace, are Balearic-pared-back lovely. In every cushioned corner is an ecru seating area (the most coveted spot is atop the prow); raku ceramics sit alongside manta-ray bronzes and sculptural crabs and, on the walls, framed photographs of the boat-building process pay homage to regional craftsmanship.

The kitchen follows a global-meets-local philosophy too: Chilean chef Bruno Noerr Pimentel serves fusion plates of fish curry with banana leaf, ceviche and Peruvian-style tenderloin, while Indonesian sous-chef Fauzi Gusdimsyah dishes up spicy nasi goreng to go with jamu tonics (roasted rice, ginger, tamarind and honey). The spa has two deft therapists and products by Anne Semonin, but the life aquatic is the focus, with scuba equipment, snorkels and paddle boards. Although voyages include a Jurassic Park-like encounter with Komodo dragons, it’s the mix of onboard languor and coruscating underwater life that makes a stay on this liveaboard thrilling. By Nick Smith

Book it: Cabins from about £880 per night; day charter from about £9,700Telephone: +34 971 188 894Website: pranabyatzaro.com

A bold fleet of stylish ships is hitting the waves in both hemispheres, delivering extraordinary experiences, Komodo...

Best for: feasting

With a 2,500-piece art collection worth £5 million, this ship is the closest thing to a floating museum. A painting by Eduardo Arranz-Bravo hangs in the lobby; Picassos and a Chagall line the walls of the bar at Prime 7 steakhouse; and there’s an Agustí Puig in the Explorer Lounge. Add to that the sweeping spiral staircases, endless marble floors and huge hand-blown glass chandeliers by Czech artisans, and the result is a glitzy Art Deco-inspired Italian palazzo at sea. The ship spends the summer swinging through the Med, calling at cosmopolitan ports – Lisbon, Venice, Barcelona – that were once part of a typical European Grand Tour.

Of course, these cultural capitals offer more world-class meals than could possibly be eaten in a lifetime but the eight excellent restaurants onboard – especially reservations-only Pan-Asian Pacific Rim, which serves up mouth-watering black miso cod and dim sum to rival Nobu – are worth hanging back for. Another real highlight is the Culinary Arts Kitchen, a high-spec space full of stainless steel and freshly sharpened knives run by no-nonsense chef Kathryn Kelly. Fast-paced classes range from brunch (scones just like her grandmother used to make, baked oatmeal following a recipe by her daughter) to easy dinner-party dishes that can be replicated back home. It’s just another way in which this bells-and-whistles ship is a cut above. By Janice Wald Henderson

Book it: A seven-day Lisbon to Barcelona cruise departing April 2020, costs from about £3,899 per person per night, all-inclusiveTelephone: +2380 682280Website: rssc.com

Best for: adventure

At the end of 2017 Silversea ploughed £30 million into transforming Silver Cloud into a top-of-its-league expedition ship with underwater sonars and a reinforced hull designed to gently break up crunchy blankets of ice in polar waters. It’s kitted out with Zodiac boats that speed through the spray towards Antarctica’s Elephant Island where seals loll and penguins tumble on the rocky shore, and kayaks for inching close enough to icebergs to hear them crackle. Given the otherworldly edges of the globe this ship reaches – from the Chilean Fjords to Cameroon – every bit of programming is aimed at total immersion, be it at the spa, where a crystal sound bath slips guests into a semi-trance, or a hands-on lesson at the new Photo Studio which results in pin-sharp pictures of that tawny red baboon spider before it scurries away.

Suites are elegant, with super-soft Pratesi linens on the king-size bed and Etro robes in the wardrobe. Dinner is served in the restaurant or at The Grill on deck, where you cook your own steak on a slab of volcanic rock. But it’s the butler team (full of cheery conversation over a breakfast-omelette order and highly efficient at the same time) and the expedition leaders that make this ship stand out. Marine biologists, geologists and naturalists lead the excursions and take it in turns to squeeze in unstuffy onboard lectures. A winning combination of expert knowledge and excellent service. By Janice Wald Henderson

Book it: A 16-day Buenos Aires to Ushuaia cruise, departing November 2019, costs from about £11,250 per person, full board and including excursionsTelephone: +44 844 251 0837Website: silversea.com

Best for: large-scale adventure

When Encore launched in 2017, the whispered concern among Seabourn fans, who know it to be a boutique-style company hot on service, was its size. With room for 600 passengers, it is considerably larger than the rest of the fleet (since then sister ship Ovation has also been added). There was no need to worry. Whether kicking back in a club chair in the mahogany-lined Observation Bar as the dunes that edge Jordan’s Gulf of Aqaba, drift by, or making an espresso pitstop in buzzing Seabourn Square, it feels more like being on a super-sized yacht than a liner. Hotel heavyweight Adam D Tihany – behind The Beverly Hills Hotel and the recently rebooted Oberoi in New Delhi – was brought in to oversee the design, all swooping soft edges in muted greys and blues and considered quiet pockets, including a hot tub squirrelled away at the back of Deck Five and The Retreat, 15 cabanas with a beach-club vibe.

More space also means more restaurants: Sushi, where you can sip sake at the counter, and The Grill by Thomas Keller, serving wagyu beef flown in from the chef’s favourite farm in Idaho. Itineraries include feature trips in partnership with UNESCO and are aimed at really getting to grips with a destination, be it Salah, the perfume capital of the Middle East, or Komodo Island. And staff are on-the-button brilliant. Like the time a passenger was (briefly) stuck in an elevator, only to be greeted upon release with a ‘Welcome back!’ sign and the captain holding a glass of Champagne. By Mark Orwall

Book it: The 37-day Athens to Singapore Seas of Sinbad cruise, departing October 2019, costs from about £11,398 per person, all inclusiveTelephone: +344 338 8615Website: seabourn.com